Most people recognize her today from her multitude of smash radio hits and the other success she now enjoys, but it all started on the small screen when she was playing the adorable Cat Valentine.
In Victorious and the show’s spinoff, Sam & Cat (on Nickelodeon), Ariana was able to pull off a character that had been done a million times over—the ever loveable air-head—so masterfully portrayed in the past by Suzanne Summers (Three’s Company) and Lisa Kudrow (Friends & Mad About You). And it was in that role that Ariana called attention to herself from a multitude of younger viewers.
But like all young actresses who start in this business at an impressionable age, she had to change in order to be accepted by an older and broader audience–basically anyone past grades six, seven and eight.
Alyssa Milano, who got her start on Who’s The Boss alongside Tony Danza and the blockbuster hit, Commando with Arnold Schwarzenegger, had to work extremely hard to break out of that shell. So, as she grew older, so did her roles become all that more mature … case in point, her character in Fear. I’m sure once viewers saw her performance in that film, nobody thought of her as a cute little kid anymore.
Well, like all these stars before her, Ariana Grande would no doubt follow suit, changing the way the world would look at her. So, no, she isn’t adorable, ditsy Cat Valentine anymore, as these 20 pictures can prove.
20 It Didn’t All Start on Nickelodeon
Way before all the funny faces and slapstick comedy of Cat Valentine, Ariana Grande was flexing another one of her muscles… her singing. And yes, she sang on Victorious, but Nickelodeon doesn’t have the same ring to it as say… Broadway.
That’s right. The talented young star got her start on Broadway, of all places, in 13. In 2008, Ariana would act and sing in the play with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Coincidentally, also on the cast was her future co-star in Victorious, Elizabeth Gillies.
13 is about a thirteen year old boy who’s impending bar mitzvah, his parents’ divorce, and being at a new school becomes way too much to handle. Ariana played one of the cheerleaders.
So as far as first gigs in Hollywood, we’ll agree that she was off to a good start.
19 Iconic Characters
Could it be?
As it turns out, she did play iconic characters from the screen, only in smaller productions of course. Yet the artistic seeds were planted, and a star was most definitely on the horizon.
She was with the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater and it was in her time there that she played three iconic characters from the screen. She played the title role in Annie, she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and Belle from Beauty and The Beast. As far as her singing is concerned, she performed The Star-Spangled Banner at a Florida Panthers game.
So theater and music was what she juggled—pretty much—hand in hand during her youth. And all while she attended prep school. The norms of an adolescent life weren’t really in the cards for her, it seemed.
18 How did you get your name!?
“Meow.”
Do you remember Felix The Cat?
Sure you do. He was that adorable little cat—black and white—always involved in seemingly insurmountable situations, yet always getting out of them by the skin of his teeth, or perhaps I should say fur. Anyway, you get the point.
Well, as it turns out, Ariana’s parents named her after a character from that cartoon.
Not a word of a lie!
Ariana’s parents, who are both of Italian descent, named her after the character of Princess Oriana from Felix the Cat: The Movie. In the animated film, Princess Oriana is rescued by Felix after being chased and captured by a band of Head-Hunters (and not the good kind). But not to worry, she is safely returned to her kingdom by the heroic cat.
Ariana is obviously a play on the name of origin, but both are actually quite nice.
17 The Bug Bit Early
Although she was building quite an impressive acting resume, she hinted many times that she had a deep interest in making what she often called an R&B album. She felt this way as early as her early teens. For her, music wasn’t simply going to be about musicals and plays. No, she had a vision for her music, and eventually, she got there.
Although when she brought the idea of her doing an album to Record execs in LA, they kind of told her that it wouldn’t really sell. Well, those execs are probably kicking themselves now.
So, as her acting career continued to blossom, she held on, occasionally performing and singing at a New York City Jazz club, Birdland.
Coincidentally, because she was so busy, she had to leave school as a full-time student, but was tutored privately.
16 Splitsville
It’s a common theme amongst young celebrities everywhere, but as Ariana was moving on from eight to nine years old, her parents called it quits and separated.
Joan Grande, her mother was CEO of Hose-McCann Communications, and her father, Edward Butera, a Graphic Design Firm owner. Ariana has a half-brother, Frankie Grande who works as a producer and businessman.
Sounds like her parents both had pretty hectic careers, and the fact that their daughter was on her way to becoming a star didn’t help, and surely only added on to the stress of raising a family in the tumultuous period of the late nineties and early millennium.
Regardless, Ariana adopted her mother’s maiden name, yet remains close with both of her parents, as can be seen in the multitude of social media images she releases of herself with both her parents.
15 The Ragged Edge
Whoever expected sweet Cat Valentine to find an edge?
Where in the world was it even possible to find?
Easy.
The music business.
It’s no wonder that an artist can turn and change in the blink of an eye. Either from soft, cuddly and fun, to somber, attitudinal and evasive seemingly overnight. Many believe such was the case for Ariana.
As Cat Valentine would have said: “Spoiler Alert!” There are indeed many reports that she isn’t the nicest star to get along with.
Yes, Cat Valentine herself . The sweetest girl at Hollywood Arts High … as mean as mean can be.
The demands of a musical career, or any career in the spotlight are quite high and can probably cause even the simplest of people to change.
14 Yet For Most, She’ll Always Be Cat
The role that would change her life came in 2010, and she was set to act in Nickolodeon’s Victorious. The character of Cat Valentine propelled her to superstardom amongst the 9-17 demographic of young teen and preteen girls seemingly overnight. It premiered with 5.7 million viewers watching. That was huge at that time. The second season premiered at 6 million plus. There was nowhere to go but up, and up it went.
The spin-off show, Sam & Cat was a no-brainer for network executives.
Why did it work?
The cast was great, but one look at the character Grande played, the loveable, clueless girl with adorable facial expressions and not the slightest bit of a catty edge to her … why wouldn’t it work?
13 Segue To Her True Dreams
But the role she played on the popular Nickelodeon TV show did more than garner her the right acting credits. It garnered her “big time” attention and from just the right demographic.
That age group of teens were the perfect target audience for someone like her… someone who had aspirations of making it big in what was probably her one true calling and passion.
Yes, she had sang throughout most of her career up until that point, but chasing her true dream, the realization of making an R&B record was what she was really after, and after Victorious, her newfound fame brought her that.
It didn’t take that long; by that time young Miss. Grande was only 17, and ready for more.
12 Yours Truly
By the time Season 1 of the show wrapped, she was already putting into motion her plans to record her very first album.
She worked on Victorious themed albums—as she sang often in the show—and worked with a vocal coach to improve her sound. And what was even more impressive was that she would record herself singing songs by some of her favorite artists like Mariah Carey, Adele and Whitney Houston and upload them to YouTube.
Now how impressive is that? An independent start for an already established celebrity!
Well, those videos were apparently seen by the right people and the album that was destined to be made was set in motion.
She recorded Yours Truly, her first record while she worked on her TV show, and when Victorious went off the air in 2013, it was finally released through Republic and it debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200.
11 I’m An Individual
Ariana Grande, The Essayist.
Really?
Chuck Palahniuk or Michael Crichton! Now if you’d mentioned any one of those men, I would have believed you, but Ariana Grande?
No way.
Well, as it turns out, it’s sort of true. In an essay she posted via her Twitter account, she made some bold statements about empowerment and how she’d much rather be seen as an individual and not as a “star” whose love life is the focal point of the interest thrown in her direction.
Bold statements indeed. As it turns out, Kendall Fisher, writer for E! called her a feminist hero. Furthermore, in 2016, she was named as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People In The World.
She also had the support of her contemporaries, Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.
10 Manchester
“broken.
from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don’t have words.”
6:51 PM - May 22, 2017
The exact transcript from Ariana Grande’s Twitter account in reference to the attacks that occurred during her concert in Manchester ,England on the night of the 22nd of May 2017.
The star was an emotional wreck afterwards and spoke only through the words she typed into social media. Weeks later, she held a benefit concert for the fallen and visited the injured in hospital. There isn’t much else to say about a tragedy that rocked the world. It was indeed horrible.
For Ariana’s part, the measure of a public figure is not how well they perform when things are going well, but how they handle the awful tragedies that are thrown their way.
9 Carry Me
Did you ever hear a particular star’s most ludicrous requests?
You know what I mean … “only red jelly beans in the dressing room” … “no onion in my onion soup” … “only poppy seed bagels with my cream cheese”, and so on and so forth.
Well, according to sources close to the star, Ariana likes to be … carried.
You heard me.
If James Brown’s stage hands had to have a robe ready to wrap around him when he stopped performing, Ariana’s stage dudes have to be ready to heft and carry. That’s right, Miss. Grande asks her stage hands to pick her up … in the cradle position, I might add, and carry her to her dressing room. If you don’t believe me … look it up. There are photos of this online. She’s also been known to be carried from the arena to her bus.
Hey, I’ve heard worse.
8 The Big Picture
Big budget Hollywood has eluded her.
No doubt she has had tremendous success in TV and musical theater, but the “Big Screen” is definitely keeping its distance, for the time being. She had voice work in the animated Snowflake, The White Gorilla, and Underdogs. The only other feature film credit she has is a cameo in Zoolander 2 with Ben Stiller.
Is the “Big Screen” paying attention and biding their time? Only time will tell, but there are many that think her time for feature films has come and gone. Many believe if she was going to break through, it would have happened already.
Yet, most of her young fans are holding out.
One look at her past can prove that she has some acting chops, and she enjoys character acting in her many music videos, so there is a possibility.
7 The Ponytail
Your style follows you around. In most circumstances, your style defines you. Some artists change their style and re-invent themselves over and over again, and every time out, yet with Ariana, it seemed as though once was enough … for now (she’s still young).
Once she moved on from the persona and style that gave her so much fame, she nestled comfortably into the style most people recognize her to have today.
It rarely falters and she’s rarely without that long, silken ponytail whipping around when she makes a dramatic head flip, or dances around on stage. Even from the nosebleeds, I’m sure fans rarely lose sight of her.
Besides, styles help you gain success faster. When you’re recognizable, people are that much more likely to remember you.
Hey… it worked for Steven Seagal.
6 No More Brunettes!
Women have been obsessing over the color of their hair for ages.
“Blonds have more fun” … “Brunettes get all the men” … “Redheads have a fiery temper,” and so on and so forth. But have you ever stopped to think? Maybe women obsess over such pursuits because men make them feel like they must.
No?
Just ask Ariana Grande.
When she was cast to play the character of Cat Valentine in Victorious, she was forced to dye her hair red because Dan Schneider, the show’s executive producer was quoted as saying he didn’t want all of the characters to be brunettes.
Albeit, the color suited her; especially the shade of red that was chosen, but still.
But fiery temper? No way. The character of red-headed Cat Valentine was adorable and indeed lovable. So much for those old aphorisms, eh?
5 Working With a Rock Icon
The war between fans of Rock and R&B has been going on since Disco and dance was battling it out on the airwaves with the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. Still today, most fans of the rock genre wouldn’t touch pop music with a ten foot pole, much less groove to the melodies as they drive to work.
However, Ariana Grande can add to her list of accolades that she has worked with a rock icon of years past, and a legitimate one at that.
Desmond Child, legendary rock writer and producer of such hits as: Livin’ On A Prayer (Bon Jovi), Poison (Alice Cooper), and Dude {Looks Like a Lady} (Aerosmith)—unfortunately, he also gave the world Livin La Vida Loca, but we’ll ignore that one for now—he worked with Ariana in Cuba Libre, a musical he wrote and produced.
Does this mean that the local head banger that hangs out at your local pub will be buying her latest CD?
Probably not.
4 A Stage Presence
Most pop icons have got… it.
There’s no other way to describe it.
It’s basically when they’ve got 20,000 people in front of them and every eye is on them and no matter how loud it is, how many people are pushing and shoving around you, you want to listen to that person’s every word.
It’s powerful stuff and when it happens… when it really happens, it’s scary, to say the least.
Many have abused that power, both in popular music and rock, but the ones who master it and treat it with the respect it deserves are the ones that can truly be considered R&B icons.
Michael had it … do I really need to use his last name?
Madonna has it.
Lady Gaga has it.
Arguably, Ariana could be on her way to achieving it.
3 Diva With a Bad Rep
What builds a bad reputation?
Bad publicity.
What garners bad publicity?
Stars who refuse to listen to their press agents and keep tweeting and posting whenever their hot head tempers allow them to.
Ariana’s bad temper and bad, diva rep come from her inability to abstain from heated twitter and social media remarks like this one:
When asked why Victorious was coming to an end, she responded with this little diddy: “Sweetheart the only reason Victorious ended is because 1 girl didn’t want to do it. She chose to do a solo tour instead of a cast tour. If we had done a cast tour Nickelodeon would have ordered another season of Victorious while Sam and Cat filmed simultaneously but she chose otherwise. I’m sick of this bs.”
2 We Can Make Mistakes Too
She received negative publicity in 2015 and, as most stars in this era, it was because of a video that was leaked of her in some surveillance footage.
In the video, she’s in a doughnut shop saying: “I hate Americans. I hate America. This is disgusting” –verbatim.
She then proceeded to lick some doughnuts she didn’t pay for.
Of course the incident was later squashed by her and her team.
She’s been quoted as saying that substances may have been involved and the pressures of her life were getting to her, but when she was asked what she meant by her comments, she said that she meant she hated the obesity issues all Americans were facing.
Hey!
That’s pretty awful too, considering that a huge portion of the entire North American culture is obese.
1 Lost Innocence
Innocence lost?
Of course. This is the course that must be taken. It’s happened so many times before, and I ask in the year 2018, are we still surprised?
Time passes and the stars of yesterday age along with the world and as they age, we age with them. We live through our own adventures as they sing and act their way through theirs.
Of course change isn’t all bad, although it can be painful at times. And much like the kid who meets his hero ball player at the grocery store one day and asks him to sign a ball for him, and the aging athlete all bent up out of shape from old injuries and a hard life turns to the kid and says, “Kid, Get The Hell Outtahere!”
Can we blame the ball player?
That’s the age old question, and one we can ask of Ariana Grande. Has she changed so much that we can be justified in hating her or loving her?
We can’t say. All we can do is watch and see what else she does with the time she’s been given at the top.
And to her I say good luck.
